Feed-controlling attachment for printing-presses.



PATENTED MAR. 24,1903.

s. R. KRAMER. FEED CONTROLLING ATTAOHMEN'I' FOR PRINTING PRESSES'.

APPLIOATION'FILED 00T.9, 1902.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1 no MODEL.

nvawkm No. 723,683. PATBNTED MAR. 24, 1903. s. R. KRAMER.

FEED GONTROLLINGATTAGHMENT FOR PRINTING PRESSES. APPLIOATION P'ILBD 0019, 1902.

i G I WEE THE NOnRls mans co. vnm'oumo WASNINGTON, a. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FEED-CONTROLLING ATTAC HMENT FOR PRINTING-PRESSES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Let ters Patent No. 723,683, dated March 24, 1903.

Application filed October 9, 1962.

To all /7/0771 (it may concern.-

Be it known that I, SAMUEL R. KRAMER, a' citizen of the United States, residing in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, have invented certain 5 Improvements in Feed- Controlling Attachments for Printing-Presses, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to certain improvements in the detail construction of mechan- 1O ism designed to be attached to a printingpress using a continuous web of paper for the purpose of controlling the said web in its passage through the machine, one object of the invention being to provide automatic :5 means for unwinding paper from a supplyroll previous to its engagement with the niprolls by which it is fed to the printing mechanism.

A further object of the invention is to provide mechanism for controlling the length of paper between the platen and the cuttingknife by which'it shall be possible to regulate the line of cut of said knife to any desired position between successive impressions made on the web of the paper, while another object is to provide means for feeding and cutting a web of paper after it has been printed, so that two or more lengths of said web shall be cut off and deposited one upon 0 the other. 7

These objects I attain as hereinafter set forth, reference'being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a side elevation of a well-known form of printing-press, showing my improved mechanism as applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the cutting mechanism and a portion of the feeding device forming a portion of my invention, and Fig. 3 is a side 0 elevation of the improved form of-knife used in connection with and forming part of my improved mechanism.

In the above drawings, A represents the frame of a machine belonging to the class of bed-and-platen printing-presses,which, being of the well-known form and forming no part of the present invention, will not be described in detail. The platen-carrying portion A is pivoted at a to the main frame, and the machine is driven from a shaft a, this latter being provided with a pinion 03in engagement with a gear-wheel a having a connecting- Serial No. 126,518. (No model.)

rod (not shown) by which the portion A is oscillated. The upper portion A ofthe frame may be formed integral with the lower portion thereof or, if desired, may be made asa separate piece, in any case being provided with suitable arms a for the support of a paper-supply roll B. From this roll the paper web 1) passes over a controlling-roll b between a pair of nip-rolls b driven by a sprocket-wheel a as hereinafter described,

and after passing over various guide and regulating rollers b and b passes downwardly between the bed and platen of the machine around a roller b carried on arms I), which are suitably pivoted to a fixed frame 0, attached to and supported by the main frame A. The web b is then guided to a roller 0, carried on pivoted arms e, from this passing between the second pair of niprolls a and through one or more knives D D. The roller 1) is carried by arms b pivoted to the portion-A of the frame, and is provided with a spring 19 by which said roller is yieldingly supported to a greater or less extent, depending upon the tension of the paper web I). The upper of the rolls b in the present instance is pressed upon the paper web solely under the influence of gravity, and in order that the portion of said web between the two sets of nip-rolls b and 0 may be at all times under constant tension I provide the roller b, which is carried on a pair of pivoted arms. This roller by forming a loop in the web serves to take up the slack thereof caused by the changes in the of a rack-rod E, whose teeth mesh with the:

teeth of the pinion c It will be understood that the pawl attached to the pinion c engages the ratchet-wheel 0 so as to cause revolution thereof only when said pinion is turned in a certain direction,

at which time a sprocket-chain 0 serves to transmit power from the sprocket-wheel c to the sprocket a", there being provided a pair of guiding or tension idlers c for said chain.

The gear-wheel a has fixed to its crank pin a, to which the connecting-rod of the movableplaten is secured, a slotted crankpiece 6, so placed that the center line of the axis of the gear-wheel passes through a portion of its slot. One end of the rack-rod E is adjus'tably connected to this slotted crank by means of a bolt e, and byproper manipulation of this bolt the length of the stroke of said rod E is varied within any desired limits.

The adjusting-roll c for varying the position of the line of out between successive impressions on the web has attached to one or both of its arms 0' a rod or bar 0 which at its other end passes through a portion of the frame 0 and is threaded for the accommodation of an adjusting-nut a.

The cutting-off knife D is preferably coustructed as shown in Fig. 3 and consists of a base-piece F, adapted to rest upon a suitable support and formed with a shearing edge, therebeing a knife-blade f pivoted to it at f. This blade is normally retained in an elevated position by means of a spring f, attached to the frame in asuitable manner and extending over toward the knife-blade, so as to engage a projection f thereon. A clam ping-plate or presser-foot f preferablyconsisting of a relatively heavy bar, is supported by the side of the knife-bladefand is also normally retained in an elevated position by the spring f, from which itis hung by means of an L-shaped hook f of such dimensions that as one end of the knifeblade is depressed the presser-foot will almost immediately come in contact with and hold the material to be cut. The knife then engages said material and shears it off, the presserfoot being meanwhile wholly disconnected from the knife-blade. On the upward stroke of 'the knife the hooky" is engaged by the spring and the presser-foot lifted off of the material which has just been cut, finally coming to its fully-raised position when the knife is also in its position of maximum elevation. The knife as a whole is held to the framework 0 of the machine by means of two or more clamping-bolts f designed to engage some suitable portion of said frame, this latter being provided with flat guiding-surfaces, upon which the base-piece of said knife may be adjusted so as to cut the paper web along any desired line.

There is a flexible connection f attached to the free end of the knife-bladef, and this after passing around a pulley 0 (shown in Figs. 1 and 2) is connected to any suitable part of the machine having a reciprocating. motion, such connection being made so that the knife-blade is pulled downwardly or made to cut at the proper point in the cycle of operations of the device.

It will be noted from the drawings that the guides e of the framework are extended rearwardly to accommodate a second cuttingknife D, which is preferably in every way a duplicate of the first knife D, except that it has feed-rollsf, there being, moreover,a flexible connection f by which its knife-blade may be made to cut simultaneously with the bladefof the knife The feeding-rolls f are designed to be operated by means of a beltf extending between a pulley on the shaft of one of the nip rolls 0 and suitably-placed pulleys f on the shafts of said rollsf. One of the nip-rolls .0 as well as one of the rollsf, bears upon the paper being fed or upon a companion roll throughout a relatively small portion only of its whole surface, being provided with 001- larsf which are in contact with the paper to be fed for but a limited area.

A'receiving-tray G for printing material is suitably attached to the frame O and is so placed as to receive sheets cut off by or fed through the second knife D.

In operation the roller 1), around which passes the web of paper, serves to unroll said web from the supply-roll as it is needed by the feeding nip-rolls b and by its action prevents the possibility of said web being torn should the supply-roll not turn freely. As the gear-wheel a is turned by the action of the driving-shaft a'the rack-rod E is reciprocated at every revolution of said gear by an amount depending upon the position of the adjustable bolt 6' in the slot 6. The pawl-andratchet connection between the shaft of the lower nip-roll c and the pinion engaging with the rack on the rod E is so designed that as said rod moves in one direction the said shaft 0 is turned, whereas when the rod moves in the opposite direction the pawl slips over the ratchet-teeth without moving the shaft. By this means the paper web is fed forward immediately after an impression has been made upon it by the type of the printing-press, and it will be noted that this feeding is caused to occur at the upper as well as the lower end of the web through the medium ofthe chain c the sprocket-wheel a and the nip-rolls If.

The knife-blades are arranged to be operated so that they cut off the paper web after motion of the nip-rolls has ceased, the presser-foot first engaging the paper and holding it stationaryuntil the blade has acted and not being removed from the paper until after the blade is well out of the Way.

By the use of a plurality of cutting -off knives I am enabled to simultaneously cut off from the web of paper two or more pieces, one of which immediately falls into the receiving tray G, while the other is fed forward bythe nip-rolls f through the second knife and is finally deposited on top of the first piece. By this means after making two or any number of impressions on the paper Web these are out off and deposited one upon the other in the receiving-tray in the form often required in the manufacture of sales-recording books for department stores or the like.

For such purpose I may employ any desired number of cutting-off knives, depending entirely upon the number of sheets it is desired to collate, and it will be further noted that owing to the method of attaching the knives to the frame 0 they may be placed any desired distance apart or adjusted so as to cut off from the web sheets of any desired length. By means of the adj listing-nut c the position of the roller 0 may be varied and the length of the paper web between a given point on an impression made by the printingpress, and the line of cut of the knife D may be adjusted to cause said out to be made where desired between successive impressions. Turning the nut in one direction pulls the supporting arms 0, and consequently the roller 0, toward the nip-rolls 0 thereby decreasing the distance above referred to, while turning said nut in the opposite direction swings the roller 0 farther from the nip-rolls, and consequently increases said distance.

I claim as my invention 1. The combination of a printing-press for printing from a continuous web of material, with means for supporting a roll of said material, means for intermittently feeding the web from said roll, a piece bearing upon the web between the supply-roll and the feeding means, and a tension-spring acting upon and tending to lift the piece, saidpiece being constructed to unroll the web from said supplyroll under certain conditions of variation in thetension of said web, substantially as described.

2. The combination of a press for printing from a continuous web of material, with means for supporting a roll of said material, means for intermittently feeding the web from said roll, a roller bearing upon the web between the supply roll and the feeding means, a supporting-arm for said roll pivotall y attached to the body of the printing-press and a spring extending between said arm and the body of the press and tending to raise the arm, substantially'as described.

3. The combination of a press for printing from a continuous web of material, with means for supporting a roll of said material, nip-rolls in pairs for intermittently feeding the web from said roll, an arm pivoted to the frame of the machine, a piece carried by the arm and placed to form a loop in the web at a point therein between two sets of nip-rolls, a movable piece engaging the arm, with means for adjusting the position of said piece and thereby swinging the arm on its pivot, substantially as described.

4. The combination of a press for printing from a continuous web of material, with means for supporting a roll of said material, nip-rolls in pairs for intermittently feeding the web from said roll, an arm or arms pivoted to the frame of the machine, a piece carried thereby and placed to form a loop in the web at a point therein between the sets of nip-rolls, abar engaging said arm having a threaded portion and an adjusting-nut on said threaded portion in engagement with a portion of the machine whereby the position of the bar may be varied and the arm thereby swung on its pivot, substantially as described.

5. The combination of a press for printing .from said roll, a knife for cutting ofi successive portions of the web, a roller having a pivotally-supported arm and engaging said web between the supply-roll and the knife, with adjusting means attached to said arm whereby it may be moved at will on its pivot and thereby made to vary the length of the web between the roll and the knife, substantially as described.

6. The combination of a press constructed to print from a continuous web of material, with means for supporting a roll of said material, means for intermittently feeding the web from said roll, a frame rigidly attached to the body of the printing-press, a knife pivotally supported thereby for cutting the web of material, said knife being adjustable on the frame in order to vary the point of its out and having a flexible connectionextending from its end to a movable portion of the machine, whereby said knife is periodically moved on its pivot, substantially as described.

7. The combination of a printing-press, a roll for supporting a web of material to be printed, means for feeding the web through the printing-press and a plurality of cuttingknives,-with means for depositing pieces of web cut by said knives at one stroke one upon the other, substantially as described.

8. The combination of a printing-press, means for supporting and intermittently feeding a continuous web of material thereto, a plurality of cutting knives having means whereby they are operated after each operation of the feeding mechanism, with means for depositing one upon the other, the pieces of the web out 06 during one cycle of operation of the knives, substantially as described.

9. The combination of a printing-press having means for supporting and intermittently feeding a continuous web of material to be printed, a plurality ofknives supported by the frame of said press, said frame being conthe blade of the knife and a moving portion of the mechanism of the press whereby said knife is periodically reciprocated, a spring tending to normally retain the knife in an elevated position and a presser-foot detachably hung to said knife for engaging a web of material at each operation of the knife, substantially as described.

11. The combination of a printing-press having means for supporting and intermittently feeding a continuous web of material to be printed, a knife having means whereby it is reciprooated for cutting off lengths of the web; a spring tending to retain the knife in an elevated position; a relatively heavy bar forming a presser-foot having a portion detachably engaging said spring, said bar extending in a line substantially parallel to the knife, substantially as described.

12. The combination of a printing-press having means for supporting and intermitwhereby they are simultaneously reciprocated after each operation of the web-feeding mechanism, substantially as described.

- In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

SAMUEL R. KRAMER.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM E. BRADLEY, Jos. I-I. KLEIN. 

